Lazy Thursday Afternoon On The River

It was a lazy Thursday afternoon on the river this week and despite all the rains we had, we caught a good number of fish.

Karen suggested a scouting trip around the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge so we could take the "boys" (Elmo and Odie) for a ride and to see if Peacocks Pocket Road was opened up yet for vehicle traffic.

I knew that the road would probably not be open, but I never pass up a chance to go fishing so, I loaded several rods, a cooler full of water and some bait into the truck and headed out to the refuge.

We entered via East Gator Creek road and as the name implied, was greeted by several gators along the road.  I couldn't fish a top water bait without having one of these guys follow it up to the bank, so I took a pic and headed towards "Pocket road".

As I suspected, Peacocks Pocket road still had the barricade up, so we drove to a spot along the river, set out a couple of rods with shrimp and cut ladyfish, and sat down to wait for a fish to come along.

I was fishing an Okuma Avenger bait runner with 30 pound Power Pro and Karen had the same reel spooled with 14 pound Cajun Red line.  We both opted for small #2/0 hooks on a light weight sliding sinker rig.

I immediately missed a couple of bites and hooked up with a small river whiting.  I thought about keeping a few fish for dinner but since the whiting was small, I tossed it back and continued fishing.

Not long after catching the first fish, I picked up another whiting that was larger than the first fish.  I unhooked the fish and tossed that one back.

This continued for several more fish and I was silently cussing myself for not keeping any of the whiting for dinner.  They are great eating with garlic butter, salt and pepper.

Anyway, Karen kept missing bites but finally picked up a stingray that she thought was a black drum.

I unhooked the ray and as I tossed it back, rushed to pick up my rod.  I expected another whiting but it turned out to be a small sea trout.

I released the fish and continued fishing as a slight rain started.

Making a long story short, Karen and I managed to catch several more  whiting, sea trout, and a couple of nice size catfish before the mosquitoes started to become a problem.

Although I was after redfish or a black drum, we had a great time fishing with Elmo and Odie.

Elmo usually comes along for the ride and stays in the truck while Karen and I fish, but Odie likes to check out the territory as we fish.

While we were fishing, a porpoise swam by late in the afternoon looking for his dinner and managed to stir up the fish.  I took this video of the action..

Odie was watching the porpoise and when it came too close, he started growling to warn it off.

Cool dude...

After  the porpoise left the area, we were still catching fish but the bites were not coming as fast as they had been so we decided to pack it in for the day.

On the way out, I stopped at a culvert at East Gator Creek and tossed a Chug Bug at some cruising fish.  I had three hits from either a trout, ladyfish, or snook, but I never got a hookup.  After several more casts without a follow up, I packed up the rod and headed for home.

Anyway, even though we didn't catch any trophy fish today, we did catch a good variety fishing a lazy Thursday afternoon on the river.

Till next time,
Tight Lines.